Nice effort and I think we win if Boggy doesn't choke away those beautiful open looks. (1-7 on 3s) .
We needed a little more cushion to overcome the predictable LeBron Flurry and Boggy could not buy one.
I also think Joerger made a mistake going to back to Fox in the stretch. I would have stayed with Mason. Costly mistake!
But more than that
I am starting to get fed up with the passive George Hill stealing money and playing like a zombie.
This guy has apparently NO interest and NO desire and NO ability to take over a game when it is there for the taking.
Supposedly Hill is having a hard time knowing when the look for his shot and create or defer to the young kids?
Well I don't buy that excuse because all I saw him doing was deferring to Randolph and passing up shots.
George Hill doesn't have enough SPEED or AGGRESSIVENESS.
His shooting from 3 is excellent (44%) but his attempts should be DOUBLE (only 2.5 attempts ---> target 5.0) .
How much of this passivity has to do with age or lingering toe injury from last season or the deliberateness of Joergers offense or that the lane tends to close down with Z-Bo / Willie / Skal clogging it is open for debate. What is NOT open for debate is how much more aggressive Mason as a rookie is by comparison, so if Mason can make things happen consistently why cannot our $20 Million Dollar Man show life more than 1 out of ever 5 games?!?!?!? It is getting to be a bit of a recurring JOKE that we are paying this guy all this money and all he does is stand on the perimeter and make entry passes then get out of the way. Weak!
I expected when we signed Hill we were getting a better defender than Collison who would provide equal scoring punch.
Darren was the far more aggressive scorer getting to the rim and draining the open J.
Mentor or not and unless we can find a taker on Dec 15 or soon thereafter, this signing is turning into a colossal blunder:
- Darren: 12 points / 6 assists / 3 rebounds / 1.3 steals and 17 PER on 57% TS for the Pacers (2/20 only 12M guaranteed) . - 30 years old
- Hill: 9 points / 2 assist / 3 rebounds / 0.9 steals and 12 PER on 55% TS for the Kings (3 /57 with 41 M guaranteed) - 31 years old
Now does Hill have value as a mentor to Mason and Fox? Sure, but the value of a mentor is diminished when the mentor and allegedly one of the better guards in the league is not able to back up his words with actions.
Notice Hill's low assist tally too compared to DC. This reflects an inability to beat his man draw defenders and kick to the open man for the assist.
Now onto JaKarr:
JaKarr shows the
contrast of a frontline player able to defend and rebound aggressively without fouling, something none of our other bigs are capable of doing consistently.
Season High Rebounds:
- JaKarr - High of 16 rebounds in 4 games
- Willie - High of 11 rebounds in 23 games
- Skal - High of 10 rebounds in 23 games
I like having a guy like JaKarr who moves his feet, holds his position and uses his athleticism and strength to exert his will in the paint.
This is what we ALL have been waiting to see more from Willie and Skal and it has been VERY slow coming!
There is good and bad news with the emergence of JaKarr last night:
- Good: JaKarr bodes well for our competitiveness and rebounding if he performs like he did last night.
- Bad: JaKarr offsets the weaknesses of Z-Bo to a degree (rebounding and lateral quickness) so this will give Joerger more fuel to "ride-and-die" with Z-Bong.
Randolph played a very nice game last night, probably his best as a King, but this team is going to suffer from an identity crisis with him in the mix. Are we a running team? Well yes and no. (Z-Bo doesn't run, most everyone else does). Are we a defensive-oriented team ? Well yes and no (Z-Bo doesn't defend beside guarding his man in the post).
The good outweighs the bad with JaKarr. It is nice to see a Kings interior player intuitively know where to be to grab the board and do his work early to grab the board after witnessing Skal and Willie wander cluelessly in the paint too often and get pushed out of the way by opponents who seemingly want it more.
I fully support the demotion of Skal to the G-League. Get your act together, kid! And hit the weights.
Tomorrow: Boogie vs. JaKarr, Battle of the Titans